The Daily News and Inky staffs are pissed.
Earlier this week, an article on Bart Blatstein’s bid to buy the Philadelphia Media Network (The Inquirer and Daily News’ parent company) was yanked from Philly.com. The move was atypical for the trusted paper, prompting both readers and reporters to question the company’s possible motives.
Some suggested it was the estimated $40 million price tag that irked owners, but others speculated that the story was pulled because PMN’s CEO, Greg Osberg, may have a vested interest in Ed Rendell’s investor group taking the reins- not Bart Blatstein.
While the accusations and rumors are still whirling about, there has been one constant throughout this whole debacle: Dave Davies. The former Daily News columnist, currently basking outside of the crap storm at NewsWorks, has been reporting on the staff’s reaction to the incident, which many say has hurt the prestigious papers’ integrity.
Davies says he’s been inundated with angry emails from staff members who are enraged at the unprecedented censoring of the delicate story. Though none of the staff offered their opinion on the record, Daily News columnist Stu Bykofsky reportedly sent this scathing email to his co-workers:
In my almost 40 years here, to my knowledge this is a first: The “masters” pulling an Annenberg, trying to gag us, the press, you and me, both papers, online, because of their personal business interests.
This is a f***ing disgrace I would expect from some s****y publisher of a s****y paper in a hole of a town somewhere else. It just is NOT DONE in big-time, professional journalism. What a shameful moment. They owe me, and you, a personal apology – the newsroom is available anytime – and a rock-solid promise they will never, ever pull crap like this again.
[Note: As Davies points out, the Annenberg reference is to Walter Annenberg, a previous owner of the paper.]
Given the uncertainty of the company’s future and the recent controversy, we could be looking at a Paterno-like demise of Philly’s largest news source. Then again, a shake-up in ownership could be just the thing to solve the papers’ woes.
Source: NewsWorks
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Chris Lipczynski
